The Canon Of Scripture

What is the Canon

Put simply, Canon is the list of books that belong in the Bible

The bible is not one book but a collection of books

66 - 39/27

The church does not establish scripture but rather recognizes it

If we, as Christians, ground the foundation of our worldview on the word of God, we ought to know what is the word of God

OT Canon

Not going to spend too much time here

Where did the canon begin?

The canon tells us

10 commandments

Exodus 31:18 “And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.”

Exodus 32:16 “The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.”

Moses writing first four books

Exodus 17:14 “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.””

Exodus 24:3–4 “Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.”

Numbers 33:2 “Moses wrote down their starting places, stage by stage, by command of the Lord, and these are their stages according to their starting places.”

After Moses died Joshua

The OT continued to grow until approx. 450-400bc (Malachai)

In the NT we see quotes of OT as scripture

Jesus quoting OT “It is written

Jesus affirming all of OT as scripture

TURN to Luke 24

Jesus quoting from law, prophets and psalms

What about apocryphal/deuterocanonical books?

7 more books in catholic (eastern orthodox) bible

The deuterocanonical books themselves appear to agree that God had ceased writing scripture

1 Maccabees 4:45–46 “they thought it best to pull it down, lest it should be a reproach to them, because the heathen had defiled it: wherefore they pulled it down, and laid up the stones in the mountain of the temple in a convenient place, until there should come a prophet to shew what should be done with them.”

1 Maccabees 9:27 “So was there a great affliction in Israel, the like whereof was not since the time that a prophet was not seen amongst them.”

2. Early Jews did not hold it as scripture

Josephus -“We have not an innumerable multitude of books among us, disagreeing with and contradicting one another, but only twenty-two (Current 39) books… justly believed to be divine…. It is true, our history has been written since Artaxerxes very particularly, but has not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there has not been an exact succession of prophets since that time.”

NT quotes Canonical books as scripture but not deuterocaonical books

Note: doesn’t quote all books of OT but the ones it doesn’t are not debated as canon

3. Not early consensus

Not until Council of Trent (1546) were they dogmatically declared scripture

4. Dead sea scrolls

Relative scarcity

No commentaries

Different scribal treatment

Other writing included that never grouped apocryphal with “law & prophets”

NT Canon

Canon is not something we declare, but rather recognize. The canon of scripture is complete when God is complete

Ex My collection of books I’ve written

Ontological

Exclusive

Functional

Canon Models

Historical

Recognized

Self Authenticating

Community Recognized

“The church no more gave us the new testament canon than sir isaac newton gave us the force of gravity. God gave us gravity… Newton did not create gravity but recognized it

Ultimate vs proximate

Proximate cause

Historically Determined

Canon is authenticated via historical investigation. Denies community reception in establishing authority.

Is important to know historically if these books teach genuine historical teaching/activities of christ

The problem is it brings in philosophical or theological biases

Liberal theology

Luther - What preaches Christ

Issue with hebrews, james, revelation

“justification in christ” is the determining factor

Ultimately, it subjects scripture to an authority outside of scripture

I.E historical method

Self authenticating model

The canon is not a primarily a historical issue but rather a theological one first

Obj: “you have to approach the canon neutral… You can’t bring your theology in”

If you can’t bring your theology in you don’t have the grounds to authenticate it

Krugers model

Necessary pre-condition: God will providentially bring the books of scripture to the churches for them to recognize

Divine qualities of the Canon

Apostolic Origins of Canon

Corporate Reception of Canon

Divine qualities

Canonical books bear the character & quality of God

Beauty, Excellency, and Perfection - What it says

Psalm 19:7–8 “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;”

Psalm 119:103 “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”

Psalm 119:129 “Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them.”

Power & Efficacy - What it does

Brings wisdom

2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,”

Gives Joy

Nehemiah 8:8–12 “They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.” And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.”

Gives understanding

Peace & Comfort

Expose Sin

Unity & Harmony (Never self-contradicting)

Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

Titus 1:2 “in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began”

Apostolic Origins

The canon is recognized because of the apostolic authority

2 Corinthians 3:6 “who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

Apostolic Tradition

The message of the apostles had the authority of Christ and would have been seen as a divine message

Mark 3:14–15 “And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.”

John 20:21 “Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.””

Originally oral

2 Thessalonians 3:6 “Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.”

1 Corinthians 15:3 “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,”

Oral tradition is NOT human tradition but apostolic tradition

Luke 1:2 “just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us,”

In order to preserve it was written down

Apostolic Tradition & Written Texts

Not new - Isaiah Says

Isaiah 30:8 “And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever.”

Not all books are written by apostles but had

Apostolic Self-Awareness

They knew they were writing authoratative message

Mark 1:1 “The beginning of the gospel (εὐαγγέλιον) of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

εὐαγγέλιον early use was to refer to apostolic teaching

Literary inclusios

Son of God

Peter (plus repition) (apostle behind message)

John 21:24 “This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.”

Claiming apostolic eyewitness from John

1 Thessalonians 2:13 “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.”

1 Corinthians 7:12 “To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her.”

Not that Paul sees his words as lesser but of equal authority

1 Corinthians 14:37–38 “If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.”

Writing - word used by Paul of scripture

1 Corinthians 14:21 “In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.””

Corporate Reception of Canon

“the internal testimony of the holy spirit is efficacious at the individual level, but would be equally (if not more) efficacious at the corporate level, leading the church as a whole to rightly recognize these books as given by God.

John 10:27 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

The fact that the church has recognized these books is a good reason to believe these are the books god wants us to have

There is opponents who argue it took a long time and there was huge debate amongst christians

First, assumptions

The opponents assume that disagreements and debate has to mean that we couldn’t have got it right. Says who?

Also assume that means anything was fair game

Assume that there were factions that all fought to get “their books in”

We would expect that

False teachers in the church

2 Peter 2:1–2 “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.”

Demonic forces against us

Theres heretical teaching out there but that doesn’t negate true teaching

Ultimately, we see god delivering his canon through normal historical channels (bible not zapped) - (same with the books themselves)

Early reference to Canon

2 Peter 3:16 “as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.”

1 Timothy 5:18 “For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,”(Deut 25:4) and, “The laborer deserves his wages.””

Public Reading of Canonical Books (This was common practice of OT). Paul affirms this in 1 Timothy 4:13 “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.”

Colossians 4:16 “And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.”

1 Thessalonians 5:27 “I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.”

Apostolic fathers

Use of NT writings

Early sources

The reality

22 of 27 books of the NT were recognized by the church as scripture

5 were debated

Heb

James

2 Pet

2 & 3 John

Which means we had a functional canon VERY early in the church

Gospel of Thomas

Gospel of Peter

Ressurection